Factur to Open Fabrication Laboratory in Ivanhoe Village

Factur (Website | Facebook) plans to open a fabrication laboratory and workspace in the Ivanhoe Village area.

The new space will be located in a warehouse at 520 Virginia Ave [GMap].

The maker space will provide access to tools and space for digital work, woodworking and metal work.

The goal, says founder Doug Brown, is to create a space for anyone to come work, learn and build a community.

Brown likes to think of this space as a way for people to be able to use and try out new tools and learn new skills.

“If you can’t afford the tools you can pay a membership to get access to tools,” he said.

The tools they will have are the type of things that are cost prohibitive for most people to purchase for their personal use, but they would benefit from using them.

“We’re like a gym with band saws and 3D printers,” he added.

The non-profit will offer a variety of membership types in an attempt to get a diverse group of members.

There will be daytime memberships for businesses, evening memberships for those that want to work on a personal project on a regular basis, weekend warrior memberships for people just getting started and full memberships.

Brown says he hopes to attract all types of members. This might be an engineer working on a project for work, an artist building his next piece, a teacher working on their lesson plans or the hobbyist who just wanted to try to build something this weekend.

The space itself will be open 24/7.

There’s about 7,200 square feet of warehouse space that will be divided up based on usage and 1,500 square feet of former office space that will be used for digital tools and as a learning environment for those that want to try out a new skill.

“We want to provide workshops and opportunities to learn to use the tools…where u can walk away with something,” Brown said.

Brown says he hopes that Factur builds on the vibe that already exists in Ivanhoe Village.

“I’ve always liked the warehouse kind of vibe and the creative culture that’s here,” he said.

Brown says he hopes to open Factur this summer.

When Factur opens the first project for the community will be building the wood working shop. Then using that shop to build more furniture and other items for Factur.

Here’s a look at the floor plan for Factur in Ivanhoe Village. Both the back warehouse and the front office space: